COVENTRY did their best to fan a barely flickering title flame with another blazing away-day display in Norfolk last night.

Boss Colin Pratt's bold claim that the Whale Toyota Bees shouldn't be written off too soon as championship candidates was backed up by their third away win of the season, and the first in the league at Saddlebow Road since 1995.

With home-and-away fixtures against inform Ipswich to follow in the next week - the Witches are at Brandon on Saturday, and then host the return at Foxhall Stadium next Thursday - Bees have the ideal opportunity to show this victory was no flash in the pan, and that their title dream has not yet been totally extinguished.

King's Lynn, weakened by the absence of injured Grand Prix star Peter Karlsson, led only once after heat one as Bees dug deep to exploit their greater strength in depth.

Five of their septet recorded heat wins and a sixth a paid win - No. 1 Greg Hancock was the odd man out - and Pratt pulled off a real masterstroke in recruiting Peterborough's unsettled Nigel Sadler as a guest for Paul Lee.

The Aussie finished with eight points to emerge as Coventry's matchwinner, his victory in heat 14 fronting a decisive 5-1 with Andreas Jonsson over Niklas Klingberg. Sadler's first win in heat two, achieved despite him springing a puncture on the final

lap, helped cancel out Lynn's opening race 4-2, and the scores then remained level with four consecutive 3-3s.

Billy Hamill, still bruised all over after his GP crash but in his own words "just about fit enough to ride a motorcycle" lowered the colours of Jason Crump with a no-holds barred first turn in heat four and Stuart Robson, having retired in heat one, made full amends to halt Klingberg's outside run to take the flag in five.

Crump was once more left to chase in second place when Jonsson powered around the grippy outside to take control of heat seven, and a Bees 4-2 was followed by a brilliant 5-1 in heat nine. Hamill set the pace up front and was joined by the battling Billy Janniro.

As Klingberg nibbled for a way past the young American on the final circuit, Hamill expertly slowed to nurse his partner to the finish.

Crump came in as a tactical substitute as Lynn blasted back with a 5-1 of their own in 10, with Nicki Pedersen shoehorning his way through a narrow gap to push Jonsson wide on the third and fourth turns and leave room for Crump to join him.

A Lynn 4-2 in the next squared matters up when Crump went under Hancock and it was still level going into heat 14, but Sadler and Jonsson came up trumps to inflict a total wipe-out on Klingberg and the busy Freddie Eriksson and Bees were left needing only two points from the last race to win.

Lee Richardson was given the nod ahead of Hancock, but Hamill blasted off the start to earn Bees three important points with his third win of the night.